Murkowski Spells Out Alaska Overreach Frustration

ANCHORAGE, AK — Senator Lisa Murkowski today addressed the Citizens Advisory Commission on Federal Areas taking up the issue of federal overreach, and speaking about her commitment to pushing back through her daily work in Washington, DC. During her speech, Sen. Murkowski talked about a small daycare in Wrangell that was hit hard by federal overreach for simply using a picnic table located just outside of town in the Tongass National Forest.

“Auntie’s Day Care Service was given a citation from the Forest Service for using the picnic table without a permit. She was fined $350 plus a $25 processing fee and given a court date. I had breakfast with the chief of the Forest Service on Friday and I gave him a copy of the citation with his coffee. Fortunately for us, he was shocked. He was horrified. He said, ‘this is horrible.’ I said ‘sir, this is the problem that we have got. You’ve got folks that have a regulation back in Washington, DC that says if you have a commercial operation, you must have a permit. For gosh sakes, can we use some common sense around here?’ The chief of the Forest Service is going to take care of this, but it ought not to take an act of Congress. It ought not to take a United States Senator meeting with the Chief of the Forest Service to inject some rational thinking into this process.”

Senator Murkowski went on to say that federal overreach in Alaska can be as big picture as ANWR, but more and more, it is the little intrusions into Alaskan everyday lives.

During her speech, Senator Murkowski also told attendees about how Alaska’s economic potential is being held back by wrong-headed, top down policies and regulations and vowed to work with the Citizens’ Advisory Commission on Federal Areas to tackle federal overreach one case and story at a time.